Echoes
by Hisha P
Summary: "The echo flowers of Waterfall were strangely silent. If it weren't for Alphys walking beside them, the child could have sworn they had stumbled into the wrong timeline."
1. Chapter 1

The echo flowers of Waterfall were strangely silent. Frisk didn't like this one bit. Why weren't the flowers talking anymore? They weren't supposed to stop, right?

If it weren't for Alphys walking beside them, the child could have sworn they had stumbled into the wrong timeline. They shuddered at the thought of _that_ previous timeline.

"Oh no", the monster whispered, her voice barely above the sounds of rushing water. "It-it's even worse than I thought…"

Frisk looked at her questioningly.

"Well, there's th-this theory that echo flowers appeared in the Underground because of the high concentration of magic in here", she explained, "but… now that most of us left to the surface, we don't- I mean, there isn't as much magic here anymore, and maybe the flowers are, hum, losing their power?"

The nearest blue flower started repeating Alphys' last three words.

"Well, m-maybe not all of it yet", she added, and the magic plant now repeated this instead.

When Frisk had suggested taking a walk to the Underground for old time's sake, they hadn't expected talks about the local plant life possibly losing its magic.

They had come back down there a few times in the past two years but this was the first time they had found this part so quiet. They guessed it had taken all this time for the magic to start wearing off.

The human and the monster sat on the ground and waited silently next to the echo flower for a while. About ten minutes later, the voice grew quieter until it finally fell silent again.

Alphys and Frisk both knew that this wasn't a normal behaviour for these magic plants ; they were supposed to keep repeating the last thing they heard _indefinitely_.

Frisk quickly stood up and walked ahead. Now, they weren't usually the type of person who were bothered by silence, however silence in the Underground, especially Waterfall, was way too reminiscent of a past life they didn't want to remember.

"F-Frisk, wait!" the lizard woman called as she also stood up, her voiced echoed by the blue flower.

After a while, they reached the frontier between Waterfall and Snowdin. Sans' station still stood there, untouched.

Alphys didn't dare to go further, as the cold of Snowdin wasn't really good for her. However, Frisk took their jacket from their backpack and set out into the snow, waving at the few ice monsters they crossed paths with along the way. Some of them had gone back underground for summer ; others such as Gyftrot had simply never gone to the surface at all.

The child kept walking until the door to the ruins, wide open ever since the day the Barrier shattered, was finally visible.

Alphys didn't quite understood why Frisk insisted on going all the way back to the ruins. They never really explained. Then again, they were a child of few words so long explanations were rare. Plus they only went there a few times over the past two years and never stayed that long.

This time, they happened to have been staying at Undyne (who had left early in the morning to meet up with Papyrus) and Alphys' for the day and since the latter needed to observe the wild echo flowers…

The one she had in her lab on the surface was doing just fine, but those in the Underground seemed… underfed. Maybe she would need to plant more around new monster settlements to keep this species alive.

This one didn't need to be replanted yet, though, most likely due to the proximity of ice monsters escaping to nearby Snowdin in the summer. The flowers closer to Hotland would need to be taken care of first.

Alphys took her phone from her pocket and texted Asgore about it. After all, he had more knowledge in gardening than most other people she knew, so she could probably use his help.

She then texted Frisk to make sure they were ok. It took a few minutes to get an answer from either of them.

Frisk pocketed their phone again once they had reassured their reptilian friend that everything was fine. They went through Toriel's former house in the ruins. It was almost as cold as Snowdin now that the boss monster wasn't here to light up the fireplace.

This time it was in front of the house, near the strange black tree, that they found him.

"Oh, howdy", Flowey greeted the human after he heard their footsteps and turned around to face them. "Didn't I tell you last time not to come back? And the time before that?"

Unsurprisingly, they didn't reply and sat beside the golden flower instead.

"Don't you have anything better to do?" he continued as Frisk put their backpack between their knees and opened it.

They gave him some pictures of the surface, newspaper cuts to keep him updated on what was happening up there, and a letter. At least they had stopped trying to get him to go there with them. He didn't quite trust himself not to hurt others again. Especially when he could no longer undo any of the potential damage through SAVEs and resets. Well, Frisk could probably reload a SAVE, but from what he had been told, Smiley Trashbag would rather they didn't do that, please.

Speaking of SAVE and reset…

"You know they can still reset everything, right?" the flower said suddenly. Frisk nodded slowly and stared at the ground, picking up fallen leaves from the dark tree and mindlessly playing with them with one hand. "Who knows, maybe they already did."

The human pointed at the date on one of the newspaper clippings.

"What is it, Frisk?" Flowey asked. "It's just yesterday's date."

They pointed harder at the year.

"You mean it's been over two years?" he guessed.

They nodded.

"Just because it hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it never will, Frisk. You know that, right?"

The human was obviously very aware of this fact, but certainly didn't want to discuss it, so they zipped up their backpack and stood up to leave.

As much as Flowey appreciated having company for once, he felt it was better for everyone if Frisk didn't stay by his side for too long.

When Frisk joined up with Alphys again, they seemed upset about something. Why did it happen every time? They never said. They probably weren't ready to talk about it. The best the monster could do was distract her friend from whatever they were thinking about, so she started ranting about the last anime Undyne and her had discovered. For a moment she was afraid the young human wasn't listening to her at all, but when they started smiling again her eyes lit up brighter : it was working!

Frisk took their jacket off halfway through Waterfall. With the lizard woman's overly long infodump about her new favourite shows waking up all the echo flowers they both came across, the place was no longer uncomfortably silent.

The child couldn't express how grateful they were for that.

Alphys kept talking until they reached her home on the surface. Toriel should arrive to pick up her adopted child any minute now.

Surely enough, not long after Alphys and Frisk sat inside for a snack, the doorbell rang. The human child literally bounced off the couch to open the door to their "momster".

"Greetings my child", she smiled as she picked them up for a hug. "Did the sleepover go well?"

Frisk nodded, smiling back. As soon as their feet touched the floor again, they dashed to the kitchen to make some tea.

"Undyne isn't here with you?" Toriel asked Alphys.

"She's hanging out with Papyrus. Oh, and, hum… please take a seat. If you want."

The two women sat on the couch, waiting for the tea to be ready.

Frisk arrived with the tea and served the three of them before sitting as well. They all chatted for a while until the teacups were cold and empty and it was time for mother and child to leave.

No-one mentioned Frisk going back to the ruins again, but since Alphys did mention them tagging along while she was doing some routine observation of Waterfall Toriel could easily guess that they did it again. It had been many months since the last time. Were they feeling nostalgic? Did they have another reason? She guessed only Frisk knew the answer.

Sans woke up from his nap and immediately checked the date on his phone like he always did ever since the Barrier was broken. It had been over two years now.

The possibility of a reset seemed less and less likely as time passed, but still a part of him kept reminding him that it was still a possibility. He doubted that voice would shut up any time soon, no matter how happy Frisk seemed to be with their life now.

The sound of Papyrus and Undyne entering the house and talking loudly distracted him from his thoughts. Since it was lunchtime, they decided an impromptu cooking lesson was in order.

Sans lay awake on his bed for a little while before finally getting up. His brother and his friend had gotten much better at cooking (and also at not burning anything) over the last few months so maybe he would actually eat lunch with them instead of going to New Grillby's today.

He went downstairs and stood right outside the kitchen.

"'sup?" he asked.

"SANS!" Papyrus exclaimed. "YOU'RE RIGHT ON TIME TO TASTE MY GREATEST SPAGHETTI YET!"

"Don't you mean 'our greatest spaghetti'?" Undyne corrected him.

"OF COURSE! AS GREAT AS I AM, I COULDN'T HAVE GOTTEN THIS FAR WITHOUT YOU, UNDYNE!"

Sans was proud of his brother's progress : his creations were edible now! He still didn't seem to be much interested in trying other dishes, but Sans didn't mind. After all, if it weren't for Papyrus he'd be eating the same burger for every meal every single day.

Undyne went back to her and Alphys' house after lunch, leaving the skeleton brothers alone. A few minutes later, Papyrus's phone buzzed from a new text.

"so, who is it?" Sans asked as his brother read the message.

"IT'S FRISK. THEY WENT TO THE UNDERGROUND WITH ALPHYS TODAY."

While Sans was very much aware of how Frisk went back to the ruins a few times before, he didn't quite understand why they would text Papyrus about it. If there was a reason for that, he didn't mention it. He probably would sooner or later though : he wasn't the type of monster to keep secrets.

The tall skeleton quickly typed a reply, put his phone back in his pocket and decided to spend his afternoon cleaning the house.

Sans remained in his seat and texted Frisk.

"so i heard you went back to the underground today, kid?"

"Yes. Alphys wanted to check on the echo flowers. They don't seem so good. Maybe they miss everyone?"

"guess their aim isn't very good then"

"…"

"don't you '…' me, kiddo ;)"

"They were too quiet. I don't like it."

"need to talk?"

"Not over text"

"ok"

Over the next few days, more echo flowers were transferred to the park near the centre of the monster town of Ebott. Asgore and Frisk helped with the task.

The latter still wished a certain other flower could get to see the surface too, but even with all their determination they couldn't force him. Besides, with the Barrier gone it's not like Flowey was actually trapped.

"You seem deep in thought, Frisk", Asgore pointed out as he watered the blue flowers. The nearest one echoed his words.

The human gave him a reassuring gesture.

"Do you wish to get some nice cream after this?" the boss monster suggested.

Frisk nodded enthusiastically. Nice cream was always welcome, and in the summer heat even more so.

Asgore carried them on his shoulder all the way to the shop, as the child and their short legs (compared to most of their monster friends') couldn't always keep up with him when they walked together. Plus Frisk enjoyed the view up there.

A few minutes later they were both sitting quietly on a large park bench while enjoying some frozen treats and observing their work. Knowing that their combined efforts would contribute in saving this unique kind of flower from extinction filled the child with determination. It was more than enough for a SAVE point to form.

Even though they had no intention of messing with the timeline again, there was something reassuring about knowing that, should something happen to them or someone they loved that couldn't be repaired through normal means, they had a point in time to go back to in last resort.

Hopefully it wouldn't come to that.

Frisk took a picture of the park with its new flowers then convinced their surrogate father to take a selfie with together. Both photos were uploaded to the internet for all their friends to see. They attached the tag "#SaveTheEchoFlowers" (the name was Asgore's idea) to the pictures.

Flowey's words still echoed through Frisk's head. Sure they could still create SAVE points, but resets seemed to be completely out of their control now. This didn't reassure them one bit. However, the possibility of a reset seemed less and less likely as time passed. Maybe they were really free. Frisk wanted to believe so.


	2. Chapter 2

Note : While Frisk CAN talk in this story (they had to speak while on the phone, right?), they tend to keep verbal communication to a minimum whenever possible. They tend to go nonverbal a lot too.

Just making this clear before I proceed ^^

* * *

Even though monsters were very much settled into their new lives by now, they still weren't recognised as citizens and there were no laws to protect them ; therefore Frisk still had to vouch for their cause. At least they weren't alone in this task : their adopted parents were always there with them at every event and their friends showed up too whenever they could.

This time it was the skeleton brothers' turn to go to the meeting with the Dreemurrs. Or rather, Papyrus had volunteered to drive them there as it was only an hour away from Ebott, and Sans had tagged along.

Other monsters Frisk didn't know showed up as well as a lot of humans. Most of these were already monster allies so they'd be preaching to the choir tonight, which was pretty nice after debating with politicians who didn't want to give monsters a chance.

More and more humans were joining their cause as months went by. Usually the thought would cause a SAVE point to form but tonight Frisk was too tired from all that talking. They didn't have much problem writing their speeches (especially with Toriel's help), but speaking still wasn't their forte and most likely never will be.

After the meeting was done, they went back to the green room to pick up a few things they had left there while Toriel and Asgore were busy with other things.

"i think that was your best speech yet, kiddo", Sans' voice said from behind them.

Frisk hadn't heard him coming into the room at all, but they had learned to expect that kind of things from the short skeleton.

They turned around and smiled at him, hoping this would be enough to convey their thank you. Fortunately he knew better than to expect a verbal response from them right after a meeting like this. Talking really tired them out.

"you look bone tired", he observed. "everything alright, buddy?"

They nodded.

"alright then. if you got everything you need, we better get going. pap and your parents are already waiting outside the car."

They followed the skeleton out of the room.

"i saw your pictures the other day", he said, looking back at the child. "how's the saving of the echo flowers' doing?"

Frisk gave a thumb up, then took their phone from their pocket and typed "they're doing much better now. Just needed a little magic."

They hesitated a moment then added : "First time I went to Waterfall I thought their constant whispering was creepy, but… their silence is even worse."

"yeah, gotcha", Sans replied. "hey, didn't you say something about it before?"

The human erased what they had previously written, started typing, erased again and repeated the process a couple more times.

"what's the matter, kid?"

They finally got the courage to type the words : "it happened before… when everyone was dead" and show friend.

He fell silent. They both reached the backdoor of the building and he pressed his bony hand against it.

"well, you know the drill : if you need to talk about it, you can always crash my place. 'should probably ask toriel and asgore about it first though. i wouldn't want them to have a bone to pick with me."

Frisk smiled slightly at Sans' pun as he opened the door to them. His offer to crash his and Papyrus' place was tempting, but they were too tired for sleepover shenanigans with the skeleton brothers right now. Maybe they'd take the offer later.

"THERE YOU ARE! I WAS ABOUT TO GO LOOK FOR YOU TWO!"

A few puns from Sans and Toriel later, everyone was ready to leave. Papyrus was behind the wheel, Frisk sat on Toriel's lap next to him and Asgore took the whole backseat, which he somewhat felt bad about but it wasn't like he had a choice given his bulk. Meanwhile Sans took off on his moped after waving everyone goodbye.

Frisk could barely hear the radio of the car over the wind howling and Papyrus shouting about how great he thought they and their parents had been during the meeting.

Ever since they had first met him they had never heard the tall skeleton lower his voice even once. They doubted he even had this ability.

"I ALSO GOT MY NEW HUMAN FRIENDS TO COME AND HELP OUR CAUSE! WITH OUR COMBINED EFFORTS THERE'S SIMPLY NO WAY WE COULD EVER LOSE!"

"I see your plans to make friends with everyone are benefiting us all", Toriel pointed out.

"NOTHING IS STRONGER THAN THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP!"

Frisk nodded in agreement even though the skeleton had to keep his eye sockets on the road and therefore couldn't look at them.

There wasn't much traffic so it took less than an hour to arrive in Ebott Town. Papyrus drove to Toriel's to drop her and the human off. He offered Asgore to drive him to his own house as well but the former king reminded the skeleton that he lived nearby and could just walk there. Asgore liked to walk.

"Good morning my child", Toriel greeted Frisk when they entered the living room the next morning, their eyes still sleepy. "Did you sleep well?"

They nodded. The night had indeed been quite peaceful this time. It wasn't always the case.

After breakfast they helped Toriel with housework, then spent the afternoon planning future meetings. School may be out for summer but their responsibilities as ambassador didn't take vacations.

"Mom? How long do you think…?" Frisk asked softly as they wrote down the first draft of a future speech on Toriel's laptop.

It was mostly recycled ideas from previous ones, as the general message of "please accept the monsters" hadn't changed ever since they accepted the job.

"How long until what, Frisk?"

"Citizenship."

"I do not know. And I fear that even after monsters obtain it, our work won't be really complete."

Frisk went silent again. They knew their mom was right. Together they did and would make a lot of progress, but there would always be humans who don't like monsters. Humans already had a hard time getting along with each other, after all. Still the child remained as determined as ever. After facing Flowey and Asriel, anything else that came their way seemed much easier. For the most part, anyway.

They finished up their draft while Toriel looked over their shoulder and pointed out the parts that they might need re-wording and the occasional typo.

"You did such a good job with this, Frisk", the boss monster congratulated them. "Why don't you take a break? I'll go make you some cookies."

Frisk smiled their brightest smile at the praise and promise of baked goods, which made their mother smile in return. They saved the draft and turned the laptop off. They even offered to help with the baking. Toriel's first instinct was to argue that they didn't have to since the cookies were supposed to be like a gift for them, but she accepted the offer because helping her made her child happy.

Really nothing could beat home-made food cooked by fire magic.

Frisk was biting into their third freshly-baked cookies when the familiar sound of their phone buzzing against the wooden table of the living room was heard. They went to check : it was a text from Alphys.

"The echo flowers you and Asgore helped transfer seem completely healthy now! Thanks again for your help ^-^"

Another text came before the human could reply :

"There still are a few others that haven't been planted in the park yet. Would you like some for your houses?"

Frisk typed a quick "yes", then suggested Alphys whispered "I love you Undyne" to one of the flowers and gave it to her girlfriend.

It took five whole minutes for the lizard woman to finally reply :

"Would she like it?"

"She loves all your gifts. Do it."

It was two hours later, as they were watching TV with Toriel ("but not too long, my child, or it might hurt your eyes"), that Frisk received a message from Undyne. It was a picture of a small echo flower in a pot resting on her piano. The caption said "best idea you ever had, punk!"

"What are you smiling at, Frisk?" Toriel asked.

The human showed her the picture and briefly explained its context.

"That's very cute", she commented, an amused grin on her face. "Maybe if there were more echo flowers monsters could gift them to one another more often. Like humans do with non-magic flowers."

Speaking of Flowers… did Flowey even bothered to read the letter? There was only one way to know and Frisk would rather not go back to the ruins again so soon.

The very next day, Frisk took two echo flowers from Alphys' lab and planted them in Toriel's and Asgore's gardens respectively.

Then, with their parents' permission, they crashed the skeleton brothers' place for the evening.

"Make sure they don't stay up too late", Toriel instructed as she and her ex-husband dropped the child off at the door.

"don't worry 'bout it" Sans replied.

"YOU CAN ALWAYS COUNT ON THE GREAT PAPYRUS, YOUR MAJES- I MEAN, TORIEL", his brother added.

"Speaking of that", Asgore spoke, "we'll have to give a speech to the UN again soon ; would you-"

"WOWIE, DO I GET TO BE YOUR FAMILY'S BODYGUARD AGAIN? IT'S ALWAYS AN HONOUR!"

"Actually, Frisk specifically requested for _both_ of you to be our bodyguards", the former king explained.

"well if you insist", Sans said, "i'll pry myself away from my other jobs to help you out."

"PLEASE TAKE THIS BODYGUARD JOB SERIOUSLY, SANS!"

"what, you think i don't have the guts for it, bro?"

The short skeleton winked. Frisk had stopped wondering how he could do that without eyelids a long time ago.

"WHAT I MEAN IS-"

"…that i should put a little more backbone into it?"

"Indeed you should, Sans", Toriel said, "because if anything happens to Frisk while you are on duty, I will have a bone to pick with you."

Papyrus groaned.

The two boss monsters said goodbye before leaving Frisk in the skeletons' care.

Papyrus dashed to the kitchen. Frisk didn't even need to ask what was for dinner.

They followed Sans into the living room and they both sat on the couch.

"so", he started, "you asked asgore to hire me too, huh?"

The human nodded.

"thanks for trusting a lazybones like me", the short skeleton winked.

He didn't expect a response but they gave one anyway :

"You're the only one they didn't manage to beat."

They didn't need to clarify who they were talking about.

"And Papyrus has perfect control over his magic all the time", Frisk continued. "'Need you both on the team."

"DINNER IS READY!" Papyrus called from the kitchen. "NYEH HEH HEH!"

Papyrus was so focused on the Jenga game and the one piece he was slowly taking from the tower it took him a few seconds to notice the blue glow around it.

"SANS!" he shouted when he finally noticed. "WE SAID NO CHEATING!"

"ok."

Sans' blue magic vanished from the Jenga tower, which caused the latter to collapse on the table.

"oops."

"Rematch?" Frisk suggested.

"THAT'S A GREAT IDEA, HUMAN! AND SANS?"

"yeah pap?"

"STOP HELPING ME. THAT'S NOT FAIR TO FRISK."

"ok."

Papyrus rebuilt the tower and the game started anew. A few rounds passed without any incidents, then the familiar blue glow reappeared during the human's turn.

"SANS!"

"you said i should stop helping _you_ ", Sans pointed out.

"WE ALSO SAID 'NO CHEATING'!" his brother reminded him.

The blue magic faded away again but the tower remained standing, albeit barely. Surely enough, when Frisk removed one piece, it collapsed again.

"'guess you win, bro."


	3. Chapter 3

After having finished work for the day as well as checked all of her social networks and updated her statuses, Alphys remembered she hadn't checked her e-mails yet. How could she forget this? There could be messages from Undyne in there or job offers, or- wait, no, Undyne lived in the same house as her, why would she need to send her e-mails?

However, upon inspection, there indeed were a few job offers in her mailbox. While humans were still somewhat reluctant to work with a monster, they were impressed enough with her work (or rather, what they knew of it : the Determination Experiment had been kept a secret from the human media) to seek her out.

Five different corporations wished to make her create other robots like Mettaton, which the lizard woman honestly didn't think was possible even if she did find someone else willing to have their SOUL put into a machine. Every SOUL was unique, after all. Sure she could make something that _looked_ like Mettaton, but it would never be exactly like him.

She deleted those messages.

Another was from… D.I.E Laboratories? Their message wasn't very clear about what they wanted of her so Alphys concluded it was some kind of prank and marked it as spam.

The next e-mail informed her that the cosplay accessories she had ordered would be delivered really soon.

The sounds of the front door opening and the piano being played a minute later informed her that Undyne was home, so she left her computer to go downstairs.

"Is that a new song?" Alphys asked.

"Yes", her girlfriend confirmed with a big smile that uncovered her impressive teeth. "I wrote it for you!"

"F-for me?"

Undyne's smile grew wider and her playing more passionate. Soon, the lizard's short arms hugged her from behind.

"Undyne, I- I love it. I love you."

The fish lady turned her head so could give her partner's snout a smooch. She kept playing her piano the whole time.

"'Love you too, Al."

The doorbell rung ; Undyne stood up to see who was there.

"Howdy, Undyne!" Asgore said when the door opened. "Would you happen to be free two weeks from now? We'll give a speech to the UN. Would you mind being part of the bodyguard team again?"

"Asgore", she replied, "how could I ever say no to you? Of course I'm down with it!"

"Very well. I'll send you all the details."

"Speaking of that", Alphys intervened, standing behind her girlfriend, "I-I updated our secure e-mail system to make it even m-more secure!"

"Thank you both", Asgore said. "I already feel safer!"

"You're welcome!" Undyne smiled.

Two weeks later, Frisk was awoken early in the morning by Asgore.

"We do not want to miss our flight!" he said as his child reluctantly sat up in bed and rubbed their eyes.

They hadn't slept that well and he could see in on their face. Whether this was due to nightmares or stress he didn't know. He feared it could be a mixture of both.

"Are you alright, Frisk?"

They nodded, yawned, got out of bed and walked to the bathroom. Asgore went to the kitchen to finish preparing breakfast.

They were barely done eating and getting dressed when Papyrus and Toriel arrived to pick them up.

The four of them met Undyne in the parking lot next to the airport. After a few minutes of wondering where Sans was, they found him waiting for them inside, sleeping on one of those uncomfortable-looking metal bench with his hood down.

"Hey bonehead!" Undyne called as she lifted him in the air to shake him awake. "No sleeping on the job!"

"ok, ok, i'm awake now! please put me down…"

People were already staring at them before and now it was like the whole airport was watching the monsters. They did their best to ignore it.

"UNDYNE!" Papyrus shouted, sweat appearing on his skull (Frisk had stopped questioning this as well). "PLEASE DON'T DO THAT. PUT MY BROTHER DOWN. GENTLY."

She slowly put Sans back on his feet. His hood had fallen back, barring his skull again.

"very kind of you to try to _lift_ my spirits, undyne, but-"

"SANS!"

"yeah, sorry, 'still a bit _shaken_."

"WELL I SEE YOU FEEL GOOD ENOUGH TO KEEP TELLING TERRIBLE JOKES. I WAS SCARED FOR A SECOND."

"Glad to see everyone is alright but we better get going if we don't want to miss our flight", Toriel reminded everyone.

Even though all the humans around them were still staring, the group went through airport security without any incident (besides Asgore having some difficulty going through the metal detector, but this was nothing new).

Once they finally got aboard the plane, both Frisk and Sans fell asleep as soon as they had sat down and buckled their seatbelts. Undyne snapped a picture of them as the human's body fell to the side and their head ended up on the skeleton's ribs.

Even the fish lady didn't dare to wake either of them up until the plane had landed.

As the vehicle appointed for the Dreemurrs and their bodyguards passed near the front of the UN headquarters, they saw quite a few humans holding anti-monster signs. Toriel shielded Frisk's eyes but they already knew too well that these kinds of protests were still going strong.

They were just glad that not all humans were hostile. And that they would enter the building through a different entrance and therefore avoid the protestors.

Everyone in the vehicle was dead silent.

Still Frisk had no choice but to stay determined. They had to help monsterkind. They had to make sure monsters and humans could share the world without any bloodshed or dustshed. They had to make things right.

Would that be enough to make up for what they did in another timeline?

Soon they stopped and left the vehicle to enter the huge building. The Ambassador for Monsterkind reached into their pocket where the printed version of their speech was. The audience hadn't even started yet and they already felt tired from all the talking they would be required to do. But it had to be done. They had to at least try. They were filled with determination. Actually, they could feel a new SAVE point forming right now.

They took their speech out of their pocket and read it for at least the one millionth time. However, they had to stop reading when they walked right into Asgore in front of them. He didn't say anything, but Undyne reminded Frisk to watch their steps.

Then they had to wait for what felt like forever, with the representatives or every country watching them, until it finally was their turn to speak.

They were hesitant at first, but as they kept going they could feel their determination overcome anything else and they gradually pried their eyes away from the paper until they stopped reading it altogether and put it back in their pocket. They already knew their text by heart anyway.

"We're so proud of you, Frisk!" both Toriel and Asgore said as they finally exited the UN headquarters.

"YOU ALMOST BROUGHT ME TO TEARS AND I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, DON'T CRY SO EASILY!"

"yesterday you cried when bambi's mom was shot", Sans reminded his brother quietly.

"You were so passionate, punk!" Undyne exclaimed. "That was amazing! And probably the most talking I've ever heard from you."

The monsters wouldn't be surprised if Frisk went completely non-verbal for an entire week after that.

Toriel picked them up to give them a long and warm hug.

Then the group went to the hotel they were staying at for the night. The name and location of this hotel had been kept a secret, but now that they had arrived they couldn't help but be noticed by everyone inside. After all, monsters were an uncommon sight that far from Ebott.

As planned, Undyne and the skeletons shared a room, Toriel and Frisk another and Asgore took the third.

Sans fell asleep on the bed closest to the door as soon as he stepped into the room he had to share. Undyne claimed the bed next to the window and sat down before checking her phone. She smiled at the tons of notifications from Alphys. A good portion of them were pictures of things that reminded the lizard woman of her girlfriend in one way or another. The fish lady took the time to like and comment on every single one of those.

Wait. Among all the notifications from Alphys, there was one from… the Dogi?

"Papyrus? Did you see the Dogi's status update?"

"NOT YET" Papyrus replied. "ACTUALLY I DON'T REMEMBER THEM POSTING ANYTHING SINCE THEIR PUPPIES WERE BORN."

"Well one of the puppies went missing!"

"DID THEY GET LOST?"

"It better be just that, 'cause if anyone hurt this baby I'll find out who did it and hunt them down!"

Undyne kept checking her phone every five seconds, even when Sans woke up to share some of the snacks he had brought with him and hidden in his ribcage.

"I fuckin' swear if one of those anti-monster pricks hurt a defenceless puppy…" she growled.

"i guess it's paw-ssible."

"NOW'S NOT THE TIME, SANS!"

"looks like my puns still aren't pupular with you. what a shame."

"I hate being that far from Ebott!" the fish lady shouted. "I can't do anything from where we are!"

"then don't do anything. it's not like you got a choice. plus we don't even know what actually happened yet."

Undyne stood up and decided to go check in on the others to distract herself.

For safety reason, the monsters and Frisk had agreed that going into the city was out of question, so everyone remained within the hotel. The child didn't mind though, as some peace and quiet were more than welcome.

They were showing Toriel a few new phone apps they had found recently when Unydne went to check in on them.

"You look tense, Undyne", the boss monster pointed out. "Are you alright?"

"Me? I'm perfectly fine!"

The human looked through their phone for a few more seconds, found a piano app and handed it to Undyne.

"I have this app already", she informed them, "but that's a great idea! How about a little duet for Toriel?"

She gave Frisk their phone back and took her own from her pocket, then everyone sat on Toriel's bed. The duet quickly turned into an impromptu piano lesson.

Well, looked like peace and quiet were out of question now. Still Frisk tried their best to follow Undyne's instructions. They were determined to make her proud.

"Good! Now do it again with MORE PASSION! SHOW THESE KEYS WHO'S BOSS!"

"Undyne, please do try to keep quiet", Toriel said. "If we get too many complaints about noise we might get banned from every hotel."

"Hum, yeah, good point. Hey Frisk, we could continue this lesson at my house when we get back if you want!"

Frisk smiled and gave a thumb up ; Undyne smiled back and ruffled their hair.

"Alright, I'll be going now. See ya later guys!"

Toriel and Frisk waved her goodbye as she left the room. The human kept playing on the virtual piano for a good five minutes before they decided to stop.

"I'll call room service", the former queen decided. "What do you want to eat, dear?"

The child shrugged, as anything was fine by them. They never were a picky eater. In situations like this one they would just take whatever Toriel picked. She'd still ask them anyway just in case.

Frisk woke up in the middle of the night, panting. They sat up in bed and pushed the cover away. They looked around and found themselves in the same hotel room they had fallen asleep in and Toriel was still lying on the bed next to theirs. This helped them calm down some, but they were still shaking and covered in sweat.

They got up and walked to the bathroom, careful not to make too much noise. They searched for the light switch a good minute before finally finding it. The suddenly change in lightning hurt their eyes and it took them a second or two to adjust.

They turned on the faucet and washed their face before looking up into the mirror above the sink. Despite everything, they were still Frisk. There was no-one there to change that anymore. They hadn't felt the Fallen Child's presence in over two years. Or rather, they only had in nightmares, but that didn't count, right? The nightmares weren't real. Merely memories. Memories that wouldn't leave them alone.

Frisk felt like they probably deserved it.

The bathroom door opened to reveal Toriel.

"Nightmares?" she asked, kneeling down so she was on the child's eye level.

They nodded, still trembling, then hugged their mother tightly. She hugged them back and slowly petted their hair.

"Everything is alright now, my child. I'm here. You're safe. Everyone is safe."

The shaking lessened until it stopped completely. Frisk usually didn't want to bother their parents with their problems and would only seek their comfort when things were particularly bad. Or, in that case, when whichever parent they were staying with at the moment awoke by themselves to comfort them.

Toriel stood up, still holding her child.

"Do you wish to sleep in my bed tonight, Frisk?"

They gave a muffled sound of agreement.


	4. Chapter 4

Now that everyone was back in Ebott Town, Frisk had a whole week to themselves before the next event.

That day, they had decided to hang around the park with Asgore. The sun was shining bright, birds were singing, flowers were talking… Since the park had been made, monsters had decided it would be a perfect place to go wish on real stars. Now, the echo flowers were endlessly repeating their wishes just like they used to in the Underground.

Frisk made a mental note to come back here at night. Their wish hadn't changed since last time, but it deserved repeating.

As they watered the flowers, father and child soon found a hole in the dirt where one of said flowers should be. The nearest blue plant was repeating in a voice neither of them recognised "just take one, it should be enough". They both stared at the hole in confusion.

The human took a picture and sent it to Alphys with the caption : "someone just… stole a flower?"

"Yo, Frisk! !" someone called.

It was the monster kid Frisk had befriended in Waterfall. It was when they first went to Toriel's school together that they had learned this monster's name actually was Kid.

Frisk waved at them and the former king asked them how they were doing.

"I'm great, thanks! Have you two seen my sister? We're playing hide and seek, but I can't find her anywhere!"

Asgore and his child both shook their heads no.

"It's ok, I'll just try harder!" Kid exclaimed. "Thanks anyway. See ya!"

They dashed in a random direction, tripped on their face, stood up again before the other two could help, and started walking.

"Maybe we could help you look?" Asgore offered before they could go out of earshot.

"Thank, Mister", the monster kid replied, turning around and looking up at him, "that would be n- wait, would that be cheating?"

"...I guess you're right. My apologies. Good luck, young one!"

Frisk waved Kid goodbye as they left to keep looking for their sister. Asgore quickly finished watering the echo flowers.

"Do you wish to play with your friend after this, Frisk?"

The human nodded and went in the direction their fellow kid previously went. They didn't get to hang out with people their own age that often. Well, not out of school anyway.

"Sis?" Kid called. "Where are you? Did you just go back home again? That's not funny!"

They heard footsteps behind them ; they turned around to see Frisk.

"Hey Frisk! I think my sis hid at my home. Wanna come over and hang out?"

The human smiled and nodded before following Kid to their home. The little monster's parents were confused to see them return without their sister, but delighted to see Frisk.

"She's not here?" Kid asked. "I thought she went back home."

"We thought she was still with you", their mother replied.

"Maybe she hid in the garden. Be right back!"

They dashed outside, managing not to fall this time, and their father turned to the human :

"Please make yourself comfortable. Do you want a snack?"

Frisk nodded enthusiastically and sat on the couch. The monster kid soon went back inside and started to frantically search every room in the house ; their mother joined in. Kid didn't care if they cheating or not anymore. Their father gave Frisk some cookies and they both joined in on the search as well.

"Come on, sis… this- this isn't funny!" Kid called, trying to sound angry but only managing to sound scared.

Their parents weren't doing much better. Frisk took out their phone from their pocket and started asking every single one of their contacts if they had seen the monster girl anywhere ; every answer they got was negative. But what worried everyone the most was Undyne's response : "they took another one?"

The monsters and the human fell completely silent for the longest five minutes any of them had ever experienced.

"Wh-what happened?" the father panicked, finally breaking the silence. "What are we gonna do?! Is- is she ok? What if-"

He kept rambling while he double-checked every room again. His daughter was still nowhere to be seen.

"Mom?" Kid asked. "She- she'll come back, right?"

"...Yes", their mother replied, trying to convince both her child and herself. "Let's wait for her on the porch, alright?"

Frisk followed the two monsters to the front porch and sat on the steps with them. They checked their phone again ; still no positive answer. They dried their sweaty palms on the fabric of their shorts. If someone had hurt their friend's sister… would they be able to do anything about it? Maybe if they reloaded to their last SAVE and- no, they couldn't do that, not unless they were certain it was the only possible solution. Sans had been pretty clear about it.

"She… she'll just come back and be mad at me for ditching her", Kid said. "Right?"

Frisk gave them a reassuring side-hug.

But nobody came.

Soon, all of Ebott knew about the missing children. Undyne and her former colleagues (and Papyrus) would be seen at any time of day and night patrolling the streets to make sure no-one else met the same fate, whatever it was. No children were allowed outside unsupervised anymore. Of course, this included Frisk, who was pretty sure that after surviving the Underground they could survive whatever was currently going on. However, they didn't want their parents and friends to worry any more than they already did so the human had decided protesting these new restrictions wasn't worth it.

Thanks to the patrols no other incident occurred but this didn't help anyone relax at all, especially when the human police didn't seem to care much about the case.

Frisk was reading a book in their room at Toriel's house in an attempt to distract themselves from everything happening when they received a message from Papyrus. It was a screencap of an e-mail he had received. The sender was listed as "D.I.E Laboratories" and asked for the skeleton's help in a project involving the study of magic. The mail was vague enough not to give any more details.

Papyrus' caption read : "ONE OF MY HUMAN FRIENDS MENTIONED THEY HAD VOLUNTEERED AS TEST SUBJECT FOR THESE PEOPLE. I GUESS THEY TOLD THEM ABOUT ME?"

Frisk replied : "the name sounds pretty suspicious. Do you want to volunteer too?"

Their message had barely been sent when the monster answered back :

"I'LL BE ON PATROL DUTY UNTIL WE FIND THE MISSING CHILDREN SO I WON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS, BUT SANS SUGGESTED I SEND PROOF TO SOMEONE JUST IN CASE. AND I THOUGHT OF YOU BECAUSE YOU'RE MY TRUSTED FRIEND!"

"Thanks. Maybe ask your friend about D.I.E?"

"THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I PLAN TO DO!"

"Keep me updated?"

"OF COURSE!"

Frisk put their phone back on their nightstand. Human scientists studying magic? Monster children disappearing? The laboratories' name just might be the _least_ suspicious thing about it. But they needed to have actual proof before doing anything.

Images of the amalgamates flooded the child's head. What if whatever these humans were doing went wrong like Alphys' determination experiment did? Would they still be able to return the monsters to their families alive?

They kept checking their phone, completely forgetting about the book they were previously reading, but no more messages appeared.

Eventually, Toriel knocked on their bedroom door, entered, and told them dinner was ready.

"You seem upset, Frisk", she observed.

They showed her their last few messages and explained their current train of thought.

"This does sound very suspicious indeed", she agreed. "I'm sure our friends can handle it for now, but if it turns out these people are indeed involved in this…"

She trailed off, her voice getting incredibly colder and the air around her slightly hotter. Frisk could swear her eyes had just gotten redder. She took her own phone from her pocket and texted Sans to ask him to keep her updated.

Frisk spent the next few days at home without being allowed to go outside unsupervised. Though, they still had an interview scheduled that they would rather not cancel.

And all the interviewer asked about was their recent speech at the UN. This shouldn't have surprised them, really : even though humans did talk about the missing monsters on the internet a little, the media were way too silent about it.

Since the weather was especially nice, Frisk and the interviewer had decided to sit at Asgore's garden table outside. Asgore himself tended to his flowers nearby, keeping an eye on them while making it obvious that he wasn't going to talk over them or influence the conversation in any way. He and his ex-wife had been accused of manipulating the child way too many times to count and he hoped not participating to those interviews would somewhat calm things down on that front.

Though, he still offered the humans some drinks to show that he wasn't ignoring them either.

"Is everything going alright?" he asked when he brought the drinks and set them on the table.

Frisk gave him a thumb up while the interviewer, the cameraperson and the soundman gave him a chorus of thank-yous.

"I will be nearby if you need me", the boss monster stated while putting a reassuring paw on his child's shoulder.

He then went on to water the echo flower that was now in his garden (thanks to Frisk, it had been repeating a quiet "hello dad" ever since it had been replanted) while listening to the humans finish the interview.

"So, this concludes this interview! Any last declaration for our viewers, ?"

"You didn't mention anything about the missing monsters", Frisk pointed out. "None of you mentioned it in the news at all."

"Well, that's… a bit off-topic", the interviewer replied, setting the microphone on her lap away from the Ambassador's face.

"Two children are missing. And a Temmie."

Temmie had gone missing shortly before Kid's sister did, but the other Temmies had started talking about this to non-Temmies only now.

"So? We're a human news channel. We don't cover monster news."

"You did", Frisk reminded her, typing something on their phone then showing her videos of herself covering the monsters' return to the surface two years ago, and more recent ones of her trying to get a word from Toriel and Asgore as they excited the building after that one meeting a little over three weeks ago.

"Well… being a human news channel doesn't mean we only talk about humans", the journalist explained. "It means we talk about what humans care about. I mean-"

Asgore dropped his watering can.

"Did you just- you did not just said that right to their face" the soundman facepalmed.

"Yes she did, I got that on video" the cameraperson added. "I mean, they'll just cut it but you bet I'm gonna save this footage..."

"Leave", Frisk ordered the other three humans.

The sudden coldness in the child's voice reminded the former king of Toriel when she got angry. He led his guests to the front gate in complete silence. Once they were out of his property, he informed the interviewer she was no longer welcomed there.

None of the humans had even finished their drinks.

About fifteen minutes after the interview was over, Frisk received a text from Papyrus that simply said : "WE'RE ONTO SOMETHING. I'LL TELL YOU MORE WHEN WE KNOW MORE!"

However, no further messages arrived until sunset when they received the following text from Sans : "Papyrus isn't answering his phone. We're gathering the rescue team."

The content of the text itself and the fact that it wasn't in Sans' usual font sent chills to Frisk's spine : whatever was happening, it was _serious_.

A minute later, Undyne ran into the house, accidentally ripping the door off its hinges, and shouted : "Papyrus is in trouble! Follow me!"

"What happened?" Asgore asked calmly.

"He's not answering his phone! He _always_ answers his phone no matter what time it is!"

Memories from previous timelines flooded Frisk's mind. _What did you do to him? What did you DO TO HIM?[1]_ As much as they tried to focus on the present, the echoes of their past sins couldn't be silenced that easily.

"I'm joining the rescue team", they decided.

"Are you sure?" Asgore asked them. "It could be dangerous."

"The kid survived a fight with me", the fish lady reminded him, "they can handle anything."

Frisk would rather not to mention or remember all the times they died.

"Sans?" they asked.

"We'll meet with him at the rendez-vous point", Undyne replied. "Let's go!"

* * *

[1]Undyne says this if you kill Papyrus in a neutral run.


	5. Chapter 5

"Papyrus' friend worked here, sorta", Undyne explained while the group arrived in front of a very normal-looking house somewhere in the human city next to Ebott. "Apparently humans can get payed to be test subjects? Anyway, they were our primary information source over the past few days, but then they stopped texting us so Papyrus went to investigate and…"

Other ex-members of the Royal Guard were present too, waiting instructions. Meanwhile, Sans wasn't visible anywhere so Frisk asked about him. Doggo informed them he saw "a short one and a tall one" move to the back of the house and guessed the short one was Sans. The human immediately rushed to the other side of the building before anyone could stop them.

There, they found Toriel standing next to a completely destroyed backdoor. Did Sans bring her with him?

"Frisk? What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Where's Sans?"

"You just missed him : he went inside right n-"

The child ran into the building before their mother could even finish her sentence. She followed them into the clear-coloured corridors until they reached a large room with a few chairs on one side and a desk on the other. They could see the other monsters outside through the windows on the opposite side of them.

In the middle of the room stood two humans : the one with their back turned to them was most likely the night guard given their attire and the other, much shorter in comparison, was dressed in black tank top and shorts.

"Come on, you're sure you haven't seen him at some point?"

"I'm only the night guard, miss. If you have questions you should come here during the day."

"I did! And I'm still here because they won't tell me anything!"

"Not my problem." The night guard sighed the sigh of someone who doesn't get paid enough for this. "Why don't you just calm down and leave?"

"I haven't seen my brother in four fuckin' days and you're asking me to calm down?! Just- Just let me check, ok? I know he was here at some point, I just need to know if he still is! Please?"

"Yeah, and then lose my job? I don't think so."

The human in black was looking up at the night guard with pleading eyes but this didn't do any good.

"I got a better idea", said a voice from another corner of the room, causing everyone else to turn around to face it.

It was Sans' serious voice, and indeed he was there, the usual lights in his eye sockets completely gone.

"Why don't you give this person what they want?" he continued, ignoring the taser the night guard was pointing at him. "You've already let us enter this building on your watch because you were so busy talking you didn't even notice we blasted the backdoor. You've already lost your job."

The night guard dropped their taser to the floor when they witnessed their heart-shaped SOUL being pulled out of their body and turned blue. They screamed when it was flung to the ceiling and their body followed.

"Just give us all your keys", the skeleton continued, "and there should be less damage."

The human in the tank top backed away slowly while Frisk hid behind Toriel, their whole body shaking. Soon the keys fell loudly onto the tiled floor.

"there you go", Sans commented, his voice returning to normal and the lights in eye sockets coming back as he picked up the keychain then put the night guard down and their SOUL back inside their body. "now get outta here. not through the front door though."

They didn't need to be told twice.

Frisk slowly left their hiding spot behind Toriel but their trembling hadn't completely stopped yet.

"hey, didn't see you there, kiddo. are you ok? you don't look ok."

"You scared them" the boss monster scolded the skeleton.

"sorry."

"Ok, what the actual f- what's going on?" the other human asked.

"We're looking for someone", Toriel explained.

"Oh? Same."

"wanna come with us?"

"O-ok."

The four then proceeded to test the keys on every door they found ; none of them lead to anything interesting except for the one leading to the stairs to the basement.

"just in case", Sans whispered to Frisk as they all went down, "when was your last SAVE?"

"At the UN", the child whispered back.

He didn't reply.

"May I ask you who you are?" Toriel asked the other human.

"A shameless self-insert, but that's not important. I-"

A loud thud interrupted the conversation. It sounded a bit distant, like it was a couple of rooms over. The thud repeated itself a few more times before stopping completely.

Sans took his phone out of his pocket and tried one more time to call Papyrus. He followed the sound of his brother's ringtone to a nearby closet full of lab coats and found the phone in one of the pockets. The human in black used the same trick and found her own brother's phone in another lab coat's pocket.

"I have a bad feeling about this" she said, pocketing the phone then cleaning her glasses on the hem of her tank top.

Meanwhile, in the street, Undyne was giving orders and making sure the house was completely surrounded by Asgore and the former royal guards. Once this was done, she (very much on purpose this time) ripped the front door of its hinges and started looking for Sans, Frisk and Toriel. She didn't find any sign of them or anything of interest on ground floor ; however the door to the basement had been left wide open so she ran down the stairs. She soon found a laboratory, and in it were her friends plus a human she didn't know were staring in shock at samples on the shelves.

"What did you find?" the fish lady asked. "And who's your friend? I've never seen them before."

The stranger quickly mumbled something in a language Undyne didn't speak.

"J- I mean, it's… 'her'" the human in black stuttered after being asked to repeat herself. "I…"

"She's also looking for her brother", Toriel explained quickly. "We met here by chance. And we just found… this."

She pointed at the shelve with her claw and Undyne approached to see what was in there.

One of the samples was clearly labelled "monster dust."

The skeleton's eye sockets were completely dark.

"S-Sans?" Frisk called, lightly tugging on his sleeve. "Should I…?"

"We do not know whose dust it is, Sans", Toriel pointed out. "Your brother might still be alive."

"Wait, you're looking for that other skeleton, right?" the human in black asked. "I saw him earlier. Apparently they were waiting for him or something? 'Told him they had things to show him."

She seemed to struggle slightly on some sounds, especially in her last sentence.

Then, a series of loud thuds came from the next room. The monsters and Frisk all went to the door and unlocked it ; the human woman called out "hey, wait for me!" as she followed them.

In the next room they found Papyrus alive and well and trying to break the plexiglass wall of the cell in front of him with his bone magic.

"papyrus!"

The tall skeleton interrupted was he was doing and faced his brother.

"WHY ARE YOU ALL HERE?"

"You weren't answering your phone!" Undyne told him. "We thought you were dead or something!"

"WELL, I AM NOT! THEY FOUND THE GREAT PAPYRUS MUCH MORE VALUABLE ALIVE!"

"thank god" Sans said ; the others had never seen him so relieved.

"Would you tell us what happened?" Toriel asked.

"OF COURSE! I ARRIVED HERE TO LOOK FOR MY FRIEND- THEY'RE IN THIS CELL RIGHT HERE! THEY HAD SOMETHING CALLED AN… 'ALLERGIC REACTION'? TO A SAMPLE OF MAGIC, THEY WERE GIVEN, SO THEY WERE LOCKED UP HERE UNTIL IT WEARS OFF! BUT THEY DON'T LIKE BEING LOCKED UP SO, WHILE THE HUMAN WATCHING US WENT TO THE BATHROOM, I ESCAPED FROM MY OWN CELL TO HELP MY FRIEND OUT!"

"and why were _you_ in a cell?"

"BECAUSE THEY WANTED ME TO TEACH THEIR HUMAN TEST SUBJECTS HOW TO USE MAGIC, BUT THEY ALSO WANTED TO KEEP THIS ALL A SECRET, SO THEY-"

"Hey, what are you doing out and- holy shit" called a human in a lab coat at they entered through the other side of the room.

Undyne ran towards them and grabbed them by the front of their lab coat before they could do anything.

"How many monsters have you guys killed in here? How many?!" she shouted, shaking the human violently.

"J-just one! We stopped using the dust when the living samples showed better promises!"

"You're trying to make magic-wielding humans?"

The scientist nodded, their whole body shaking.

"I won't let that happen!" the fish lady declared. " _We_ won't let that happen!"

Papyrus' friend tapped on the cracked plexiglass from inside their cell to remind everyone they were still here.

"Hold on", Undyne said.

She lifted the scientist with one arm and, while keeping them above her head, walked to the cell and punch the plexiglass with her free hand, causing it to finally shatter completely.

As the now freed human walked out of the cell, their face literally fell off, revealing a skull with lidless eyes.

Frisk and the monsters took a step back ; the human in black started walking to the exit while repeating "nope" in rapid succession.

"I did not sign up for nightmare fuel", she added.

"It's ok, I just still have residual magic! I can put my face back on!" Papyrus' friend reassured her as they did exactly what they said.

She stopped and turned around.

"Still disturbing."

"weren't you looking for someone?" Sans reminded the human woman.

"Yes. Hey, has any of you seen a guy with glasses and bushy hair?"

"HE SHOULD BE ONLY A FEW CELLS OVER! THEY SAID HE WAS TOO DANGEROUS TO BE LET OUT UNTIL THE MAGIC WEARS OFF. BECAUSE HE COULDN'T CONTROL IT!"

"You're all gonna get in trouble for this, you know?" the scientist claimed, still being carried by Undyne.

"We're aware", Toriel stated. "But we cannot let you kidnap and our children to give yourself magic. Not again."

The last part left the humans confused for a second, then it dawned on them one after the other. Of course it had to have happened before : how else could the Barrier have been made?

The human in black walked ahead of the group, calling for her brother and checking every cell on either side until she found him sleeping on a mattress on the floor (the cell bed appeared to be in pieces).

She banged both her fists on the plexiglass and shouted at him in their language. He turned in his sleep.

"He's exhausted after… everything", the scientist informed her. "You better let him sleep it off."

"WHAT'S WITH BROTHERS AND THEIR 'SLEEP'?"

"… _Everyone_ sleeps but you, dude", Papyrus's friend mumbled while holding their face in place.

"I'll just carry him too!" Undyne exclaimed as she approached the cell, still holding her hostage in one arm.

"Hey, don't break any more stuff!" they protested. "I have the cell keys, you know?"

* * *

 **Notes :**

1) : I'm a firm believer of the headcanon that the "call this person a they until told otherwise" principle is the norm among monsters, hence why Sans and Undyne called the human in black they/them pronouns at first.

2) : You guys have no idea how long I've been waiting to make this "shameless self-insert" joke. NO IDEA. And yes, I used said self-insert just to make this joke. Fight me.


	6. Epilogue

|Notes : Sorry to make you all wait for the epilogue ^^" I had other projects in the way.

But the good news is : there will be a sequel! I'm planing to make a series of fics set in the same 'verse. See you guys, gals and nb pals later! :)]

* * *

Soon, the kidnapped monsters and the human volunteers were freed. 01 and 02 escorted Kid's sister home, the Dogi were reunited with their lost puppy and Temmie was vibrating in place so much she was almost invisible. The human in black sat on the sidewalk with her now awake brother and told him about what happened.

During their conversation (that no-one else seemed to be able to understand), a white axe materialised into thin air right next to him ; Papyrus blocked it with his own magic before it could hurt either of the siblings. Looked like the magic hadn't completely faded away yet ; the tall skeleton decided to remain by their side until it did.

Meanwhile, Toriel, Asgore and Frisk gave a few gold coins to the human test subjects who were worried they wouldn't get the money they were promised by D.I.E. They also decided to give some gold to the families of the kidnapped children and the New Tem Village. Asgore asked whether or not they should bribe D.I.E into not suing them over lost property and destruction of all their research (with monsters still without legal protection the Dreemurrs were pretty sure these humans could get away with the kidnappings even if the monster parents tried to sue D.I.E) but Toriel was firmly against the idea of giving anything to these people.

"If they sue us we'll have to give them money anyway", Frisk pointed out, holding an echo flower in a pot they had found in the lab.

Their mother raised an eyebrow as the flower repeated their words. So far the child had always avoided picking a side whenever their parents disagreed on something, either suggesting a third option or staying out of it altogether. And now… they sided with _him_?

"I don't want to", they explained. "But…"

"They will do it again", Toriel pointed out. "With our gold."

"We'd just destroy their research again and they know it", Asgore replied.

"Dreemurr…"

"At least I know _you_ wouldn't let them."

"hey", Sans said from behind them, "can i borrow your kid for a second?"

The two boss monsters agreed and their child handed them the echo flower before following Sans farther away from the crowd while still being visible.

"looks like you might not need your powers to solve this one, kid", he said.

"But the dust…" Frisk began.

"you really want to mess around with time and play god just to save one person? i thought you'd have learned your lesson by now."

The child stared at their shoes for what felt like forever. Sans was right, of course : last time they tried to start over to save one person, they not only failed at it but had let the Fallen Child grow too powerful…

They knew now that, even with their powers, they couldn't save everyone. They knew it well. It didn't make letting go hurt any less.

"i asked those human scientists about that dust sample. they already had it before your last SAVE so you'd have to reset again and no-one wants that."

Frisk stopped staring at their shoes to look their friend in the eye socket.

"I don't think I can still do that. Not without them."

"good."

"So…whose dust?" they asked.

"according to their description… most likely jerry. 'must be why no-one reported they were missing."

The child's parents came to take them back. Given the late hour, everyone agreed to report the discussion of their plans for the immediate future to the next morning.

Frisk already had an idea or two.

"Sans?" Toriel asked. "You and your brother will keep an eye socket on these humans while we take care of everything, won't you?"

"don't worry tori", the short skeleton replied. "if they try anything, they'll be so boned."

He winked, she snorted, and Frisk smiled while the blue flower repeated that pun over and over.

"Will they get dunked on?" the child asked.

"you bet."


End file.
